Irish

Izzo is the biggest Bison lickspittle ever - I can't stand the sight of him.

Fruit of going for it on 4th on our own 20.

I agree that the optics are not great - but in my opinion the Football program has done most of this this to themselves. Fans are still primed to get behind this program - but to watch them is often painful - Forget the Muss years - we have also had how many years of Rudy, and now we almost as painful to watch. If we had not gone for it on 4th at our own twenty and beat the Bison this place would be rockin' this weekend.

What really hurts our offense (other than offsides) is that with our skill set at receiver, QB, and O line we are really easy to overplay without the defense worrying about getting burned. As soon as teams do that we seem to grind to a halt. Add in play calling that keeps no one guessing and here we are.

To simplify things for you - for the athletes it means being assignment sharp and disciplined - not taking stupid offsides penalties etc. For Bubba, well, it has been well discussed here but basically it means making good in game decisions and putting his team in a position to win. This is Bubba's biggest weakness (see Bison game).

Agreed - how long do you think it will take Bubba to learn this?

Because the real opportunities are when you are on your own 20

I have no problem with trick plays - but it can't be your only source of success. Running an offense is a lot like pitching in baseball - you have your strengths to go to but the key is to keep the hitters off balance and guessing. No matter how good your fastball, if hitters know it's coming you're going to have a bad time (unless your name is Nolan). We don't keep anyone off balance or guessing. The word is out on our offense and we can't seem to make anyone pay for taking away the 5 yard pass or stacking the line.

Other than extending Bubba, I don't see this from Chaves. Every time our football hopes get up we get this crap. Football does it to themselves. They need a winning, well run program to get students and the younger crowd to care. We exist in a tough zone to build enthusiasm - any worse and they would get rid of Bubba and hopefully build something better - any better and we would be a program to watch. But no - we are stuck on mediocre with flashes of being really good - countered by times of utter crap. Think of the momentum if we had beaten the Bison. Self inflicted.

If only our offense could punch.

Scoops might be overstating things - access?

And yet we as a fanbase are very tolerant with mediocrity. I agree with your post. Bubba Ball should be established by now.

It's not like this is Bubba's first recruiting class - although things are always fluid he has had many years to correct our weaknesses. I like some of the talent we have but we are not a complete team.

The media will never call out Bubba for fear of losing access for the inside scoops. They have a symbiotic relationship. The question is - does anyone in the Athletic Department call him on this crap? The only ones calling BS seem to be on this board.

And somewhat related - it doesn't seem like we can keep any defense guessing or off balance.

Great question - no doubt that ultimately the off sides is on the player who jumped. But .... to use your bullying or drug analogy - There is no doubt that kids from all situations can get involved in drugs no matter how many times they are told not to. However, good parenting can significantly reduce this kind of behavior and is much more than saying don't do it - listening to your kids, becoming involved with their development at a young age, help them find an interest to get involved in (music, sports, drama etc), knowing who their friends are and monitoring their internet use. Good practices aren't foolproof, but they do help significantly. Same with coaching and programs. Some programs emphasize discipline and being assignment sharp - they emphasize and insist on it in practice and and work with those who are problems - these are usually successful. In looking at our body of work over the last 5-6 years, we do not do a great job of this. That's on the coaches. EDIT - To give a more concrete and closer to home example - Which teams had better self-discipline and were more assignment sharp - Lennon's or Mussman's? It comes down to the head coach to set the expectations and follow through.

Lots of interesting discussion here about this team's weaknesses. For me though it's the eyeball test - Watching this group can be frustrating, bordering on painful. The continual offsides, the sloppy tackling, the missed assignments, the horrible clock management, the wasted time outs, our offensive play-calling that keeps no one guessing or off balance, and the totally bizarre game decisions among other things. At this level with an experienced coach we should at least be assignment sharp at this point in the season. And although individual players are responsible for things like, say, jumping offsides to start the game, ultimately this is a team problem that starts with the coaching staff. Bubba and company plain not getting it done. We went through 6 years of Muss and have had Bubba since 2014. Yet here we are.

Glad Driscoll got the shut out - he's a good one.

It's pretty clear that Bubba needs to go - the question is will it take UND 5 years or 6 to get it done. Our tolerance for mediocrity in Football is seemingly endless (see Mussman).

Well coached teams execute well - not just with remembering the snap count but with things like tackling too. They may lose some but they don't beat themselves.

Absolutely disgusting that a team playing DI football has this many false starts.

Not many as most of them got busses from Deitrich who are not running any hockey busses this year. The athletic department needs to address this before it gets much colder.

And I will admit that Bubba is not a stupid person - he just made an incredibly stupid decision Saturday.

How do you feel about casually mentioning that a kid was "payed off"? Comments like that helping the program?

Point taken - I guess I am just super frustrated.